THROUGH STRIFE AND FAMINE AND WAR AND PEACE,

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Fight in the historic Battle of Valmy.
WHEN? September 20th, 1792. Valmy.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

it'll be fine;

between sainte-menehould and valmy,
1792: revolutionary france.

read the valmy setting infopage

MISSION OBJECTIVE

Win the day!

Historically, Valmy was an unexpected victory for France that really kicked off the French Revolution. Make sure this holds true! Don't let the Prussians break through French lines, take either Dumouriez or Kellerman, and survive.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO GOETHE

The life of Goethe was saved by those who volunteered to keep him from the clutches of Regency assassination, though it was a near thing; they were not able to leave completely stealthily, and had to run back to French lines as dawn broke.

Most important after saving the life of Goethe, they were able to apprehend and capture the Regency spy. She is in holding, restrained in a tent hidden far behind enemy lines. You can speak with her, if you wish.



SHARPSHOOTING

Famously, Kellerman had his troups climb up a windmill and the nearby farmhouse to shoot down at the valley below and the Prussians attempting to run through it from the cover of the forest. Take out as many Prussians as you can. Alternatively, if you're not much for shooting but you're quick fingered and organized, you can help reload the shooter's muskets, hand them supplies, more musket balls and powder, fresh muskets when one of theirs becomes jammed, or simply keep the rain out of their eyes.

Battery

You hear that? It's canonfire! Cannons take at least two people to load, aim and fire, making it a steady process requiring teamwork and balance. You want to go as fast as possible so the attacking army doesn't get right up to your nose, after all. Be careful! Don't drop a cannonball on your foot.

COMBAT

Get into the thick of it! There's less armor in this era, more quick jabs with sabers and bayonets, and your pistol can only hold a single bullet at a time. Unless you've got time to reload, you're better off just throwing the thing aside after firing a shot-- you'll see this tactic is popular among troops on either side, not wanting to be weighed down by a now-useless hunk of metal. Horses are not uncommon either, though they're largely reserved for officers who are more than happy to reach down and stab you while they ride by… if they don't just run you over in the first place. And did I mention the cannonfire occasionally making the ground explode into huge chunks? Try to avoid those.

MEDICAL

As always, wounded soldiers require assistance. The medical tent has a steady supply of the wounded, many with injuries from cannonfire, where limbs have been blown off almost in their entirety, and blood gushes readily from damaged major arteries. Act quick, and don't be afraid to, uh, amputate. Nobody else is.

STEALTH

There is reason to believe some Regency spies are undercover as French officers, and intend to kill either Kellerman or Dumouriez. Stay near the generals and protect them... without letting on. Capturing the spies alive would be a serious boon for COST, so if you could manage not to kill the spy, please? ...Please?

INFORMATION is worth its weight in gold

The way these battles work is reliant on the generals sending information down to their troops from the hills they're using to overlook the fighting. Fast riders or runners are essential for this task, and it affords you an opportunity to be near either general should you need to protect them against spying. Or maybe the runners are the spies? Who knows. Regardless, try to preserve the flow of information, and fix any tangles that may appear. If a runner with vital orders gets attacked, back them up; if they get killed, replace them; if they disappear… figure out what happened?

cannon killer squad

For the fast, stealthy, and / or magically gifted, Takatora has set up a 'Cannon-killer' plan, intending to weaken Prussian artillery through magic, speed, and the application of giant hammers. It's risky-- you'll have to get pretty close to the Prussian lines-- but it's worthwhile if you can weaken them even a little.

I'm going down I'm yelling timber

At some point late in the day, just when the worst of the rain has finally stopped, Prussian artillery finally gets aim good enough to send a volley of cannonballs straight at the windmill and farmhouse on the hill. There's a reason this strategy was considered a bold move; stationary targets are never safe in wartime. The windmill comes down in an explosive crash, and the farmhouse begins to collapse. Were you caught in the crossfire? Are you coming to pull bodies out of the rubble? Do what you can to recoup from this loss.

MORALE

When all else fails, keep spirits high. This battle will be impossible without enthusiastic troops committed to the cause. Give rousing speeches! Inspire people! Sing a song! Do whatever you need to.

read the valmy setting infopage

NAV NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

[agogenpc]

She can hear someone coming. It's not their bloody commander, she knows what commander models sound like. No, this is one of their recruits. She tenses, waiting, until the recruit speaks.

She sniffs, as though he's told some grand joke.

"I am an assassin, not a diplomat. At least have the presence of mind to insult me based on my failings, pugnate."

[hakanai]

Yoshitsugu doesn't sound bothered, but he does sound sharp and quiet when he talks next.

"I know what you are."

It's hard to know exactly what to do with this spy. He personally doesn't think there's much chance of getting information out of this one at all and he is quite content to leave the job of trying to get it to their commander. Yoshitsugu willingly joined COST, going with the flow, and has the basics of their mission in his head. Some basics of their enemy.

If what he has been told is indeed correct, they wouldn't send out an operative who wasn't completely bone-deep loyal to their cause to do the job of an assassin. One might compare them to a ninja, and a ninja without dedication to their Lord was no ninja at all.

"You are flawed, and your mistake will be erased."

[agogenpc]

"Don't I know it," Xici hisses back. Her teeth are bared like a cornered animals. Some of the idiots who have come to talk to her have tried to win her to their side, tried to treat her with kindness, but this one? He speaks only the truth.

That hurts more than anything.

"They'll be erasing me as soon as the Tribunal realizes I've been compromised. It'll be as though I never existed at all." The thought fills her with terror. She tries to hide it. "A marked improvement from your company, worm."

[hakanai]

So that much is true, then. Perhaps even worse than that which had been directly shared with Yoshitsugu before. Kill a person's ancestors so that ancestor will never exist to fight them? Add 'erase your own people if they make a mistake' to that list.

If he wasn't certain about the cause of COST before, he is now. There is cruelty, and then there is the danger of twisting and altering and messing around with the flow for the sake of your own power, your own forced vision. A peace that is no peace at all, really, just a bloody tyranny named with pretty words.

(Not that COST is without its own darker side, but there's, ha, a cost to everything).

"I ought to thank you for what you've taught me during this very brief exchange but you won't be grateful. So I won't. You have fear enough to deal with without indignant feelings as well."

He stands up, steps a little closer and says very quietly:

"I'm going to erase an entirely different mistake from yours, but yours has contributed to my own mission. There's the 'success' in this."

[agogenpc]

"You zealot," she hisses, without a hint of irony. "And you believe everything the enemy says is true?"

Of course, she did speak the truth. But his bravado makes her nervous, and she desperately doesn't want to fail further than she already has. Can this be fixed? No, likely not. But she will try.

"I had heard the rebels recruited fools, but I will disappear knowing it is true."

[hakanai]

"Of course not."

Yoshitsugu very, very briefly taps her shoulder; there's no real way to tell what he means by the gesture.

"You know nothing about me. You don't know who my enemy is, what mistake I intend to fix, or the mission I undertake."

Which is, after all, completely true. He's not personally going to make things clear for her at all, because that would do him no good. No, best to adopt a certain act and stick with it. Stick with it when it comes to her and her people in general.

Let them draw their own conclusions, while he makes his own.

"And I would be careful about calling your enemies fools so easily, because you might start to believe they are. True fools aren't worth caring about. You make yourself weak to them the moment you discount them. A little free advice, come far too late, from me to you."

He chuckles without humour, and steps back, the guards now looking oddly at him. He only smiles their way, and then says, more loudly and theatrically:

"Try not to be a fool when the commander comes to say hi, hmm?"

[agogenpc]

She moves to try and bite him, but her reflexes aren't fast enough. This only is only making her angrier and angrier.

"Fools stick in the machinery of life; your sort are the filth that keep Peace from running smoothly, that keep society from calm and rest. Weeds must be removed. I pay you as much mind as that."

She studied rhetoric, in the military academy they placed her in. She knows something of arguments of this nature. But as wild as she is, teeth bared and frenzied to vent her frustration on something, anyone, she isn't sure how much of that shows.

"You take enjoyment from the idea of me being afraid. What does that say of your character, fool?"

[hakanai]

"I don't take enjoyment from it. I merely pity you."

Which is true. Yoshitsugu isn't soft in any way but what awaits her? Nobody deserves that. Even Oda Nobunaga himself would be disgusted with it, though perhaps for differing reasons to most.

"Your 'peace' is nothing but war with a pretty name. You must know that on some level; you're an assassin. Do you think you'd be needed if the society you speak of was truly calm and restful? Were it so 'perfect' nobody would rebel. It clearly has flaws, as all societies do."

He turns around and slowly, quietly, begins to walk away. That's enough for him, for now... he's learned plenty that is useful. Little Xici at the very least deserves her last moments to be free of a conniving strategist like himself.

"So I pity you, and will you remember you when I fight for my own goal, because you believe a lie made obvious by the same role you were raised in. Goodbye. I truly hope they spare you."